


tuition and fees

by starlightkun



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Arranged Friendship, F/M, Private School, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Strangers to Lovers, Swim Team, a student athlete if u will, but also a good student, i also quite like this one too, if thats a thing, reader is a jock lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26907877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightkun/pseuds/starlightkun
Summary: in which you need to pay for your private school and get an offer that you can’t refuse
Relationships: Zhong Chen Le/Reader
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

Brenton Academy.

A preparatory school home to the kids of everybody who was just shy of royalty. Almost every student who went here was an heir or heiress to some kind of fortune, or at least related to someone who was. You on the other hand, weren’t. You’d gotten in on a scholarship for your grades, and swimming, the most revered sport at the academy. Unlike all the other kids, you could be dismissed for any small infraction, slippage in your grades, or underwhelming performance at a swim meet. You were constantly treading on eggshells, which you suffered through for your parents, knowing that they wanted the best life for you after high school.

Saying goodbye to your friends at your locker, you walked briskly down the halls to make sure you could get to your first class on time. Just as you turned a corner, you collided with someone, nearly dropping your books. You were able to keep a firm hold on them, but the boy you had sent flying to the ground had his papers and things scattered everywhere.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” You apologized, grabbing a few papers as he scrambled to collect all of his schoolwork.

He snatched his papers from your hands, stuffing them into a binder and apologizing under his breath to you before retreating down the halls, all without looking at you. You watched his form until he turned out of your view, then pivoted to continue towards your first period classroom. You’d barely entered when your teacher handed you a paper, a note from the bursar requesting you in his office immediately.

With a thoughtful frown, you hurried to the front office, stopping in front of his door to knock politely.

“Come in.” Mr. Jeong called out to you, and you entered, bowing politely to him and the other two adults there as well.

“Hello, Mr. Jeong.” You greeted him quietly, nervously tugging on the hem of your dark red blazer, a mandatory piece of the uniform for both girls and boys.

“Y/L/N Y/N.” He spoke to the older couple as he gestured to you, then stood up. “I’ll leave you all, then.”

With that, he exited the room, leaving you with the two people whom you were completely unfamiliar with. The man gestured for you to sit on the chair in front of where he was leaning on the desk, and beside who you assumed to be his wife. You hesitantly did so, looking between them warily.

“Relax, my dear. You’re not in trouble.” The woman tried to reassure you, giving you enough confidence to speak up.

“Who are you?” You asked, trying to sound as respectful as possible.

“Mr. and Mrs. Zhong.” The man who you now knew as Mr. Zhong introduced himself and the lady. “Our son goes here as well, Chenle.”

The name sounded familiar enough to you, you were pretty sure you’d heard it during attendance a few times, “I think he’s in a couple of my classes. Why? Is he running for class president or something?” That was the only reason you could think of for his parents wanting to talk to you, to help him win some kind of campaign.

“No.” Mrs. Zhong replied curtly.

Mr. Zhong took the lead again, folding his hands on his knee, “We are bringing you a very unique and valuable offer, Y/N.”

“Okay?”

“Chenle, unfortunately, isn’t very good at socializing.”

“He doesn’t have many friends.” His mother added, as if you didn’t understand what her husband meant.

“Or really, any.”

“Okay?” You repeated your earlier statement, still confused.

“And we heard that your scholarship to the Academy is at risk of being rescinded this year.”

You felt your jaw drop when she revealed this, nearly launching yourself out of your seat, “Wh—”

“We’re offering to pay the entirety of your cost of attendance this year,” Mr. Zhong cut you off firmly, and your eyebrows shot up, waiting for the catch. “If you would befriend Chenle.”

Gnawing on your bottom lip, you looked between them incredulously, “I have… a couple questions.”

“Go ahead.”

“Tuition, meal plan, fees, everything?”

“Even for any equipment you need for swimming.”

You let out a long breath, “Wow. Uh, another question. Why me?”

“From what your guidance counselor says, you’re fairly popular amongst your peers, captain of the girls’ swim team, intelligent, driven, and unlike most kids that go here, are abnormally humble and kind. Probably due to your poorer upbringing.” As Mr. Zhong analyzed you, you tried not to be offended, just primarily caught very, very off-guard. “And you share several classes as well as lunch with Chenle, which serves as an ideal time to interact and introduce him to other students.”

“You want me to hang out with him, and introduce him to my friends?”

“Anybody who you think won’t be… unpleasant to him.” Mrs. Zhong clarified, assuming that you were friends with some less-than-pleasant people. Which wasn’t exactly wrong, some of your teammates were easily classified as preppy bitches, but they weren’t necessarily your _friends_.

Kneading your hands into your knees, you chewed on the inside of your cheek in thought. They were both looking at you in earnest, impatiently awaiting your answer. There was still one thing bothering you.

“Will my parents know that you’re paying for it? They would never accept any sort of money from you.”

The Zhongs exchanged looks, Mr. Zhong speaking up, “We can make arrangements for it to appear as if it’s still the scholarship covering the costs.”

“Then uh, sure. Yeah, I’ll be Chenle’s friend.” You declared, earning a wide smile from his father as his mother grabbed both of your hands to squeeze them appreciatively.

“Your first class with him is your study period at 10:00.” Mr. Zhong informed you as he started ushering you to stand up and gather your things. “I recommend you start then.”

“Sure, sure.” You opened the door yourself, turning to them for one last polite bow and a thank you. “Thank you very much, Mr. and Mrs. Zhong.”

“We’ll hopefully being seeing you again soon, Y/N.” The wife patted your cheek before you left, passing the bursar on the way out as he walked back to his office, presumably to start making the arrangements for the payments.

* * *

Slinging your backpack back onto your shoulders, you left your history class with one of your teammates in tow. Well, more like leeched onto you, as he had been since freshman year. As soon as you’d hesitantly sat beside Lee Donghyuck in your Literature class on your first day at Brenton Academy, you hadn’t been able to get rid of him. Although, he’d never admit to being the clingy one first.

“So what do you want to play next period? Fuck, marry, kill?” Donghyuck suggested as the two of you walked down the halls together towards your next period that you also shared. “Yukhei says he’s got some new ones that are even grosser than normal.”

“While that sounds as lovely as ever,” You snorted sarcastically, “I’m afraid I can’t sit with you guys today.”

“Why not? Oh, is this one of those days where you study because you’re actually a good student unlike the rest of us?”

“Something like that.”

You had decided not to tell your friends about what happened in the bursar’s office, the deal you had made, or even mentioning Zhong Chenle at all. First, you had to see if _you_ could actually be friends with him before trying to introduce him to your own.

Donghyuck held the door open to the library for you, shutting it not-so-quietly behind the two of you. The study hall monitor snapped her eyes up from her book, already glaring at the both of you. Peering around, you spotted Chenle sitting at a table against a window towards the back of the library as your friend had already spotted another teammate of yours, waving to her eagerly. She rolled her eyes, focusing back on her notes she was rewriting.

“Don’t bother Jiwon too much.” You requested quietly to him, knowing how much he loved picking on her. They were childhood friends and neighbors, and their friendship—if you could really call it that—was the strangest thing to you.

“You’re about eighteen years too late on that.” He whispered back before leaving you to take the empty seat across from Jiwon.

Steeling your nerves, you walked past the long table where all your friends were starting to set up at, sights set on the nearly empty one only containing Chenle and his schoolwork. He had just highlighted something in his book when you stopped in front of his table and looked up at you with wide eyes. After several blinks, no sort of words had come from his parted lips, and you took it upon yourself to say something.

“Hi, I’m Y/N.” You said brightly, earning no response.

The boy seemed even more startled, as if he hadn’t expected you to actually speak to him.

“Uhm, you’re Chenle, right?” Well, that was a dumb question.

Finally, he formulated a response, “Yes.”

Biting back a short sigh, you pulled out the chair in front of him, sitting yourself down. Now Chenle looked actually terrified, and you decided not to push it any further. At this rate you might make the poor boy pee his pants instead of befriending you.

The two of you worked in absolute silence, and every so often you could hear a loud eruption of laughter from your friends’ table that was always shushed by the monitor immediately. Bitterly, you gripped your pencil tighter before bubbling in your answer. You’d much rather be over there, having fun with your friends instead of sitting in a tense and awkward silence, doing a take-home practice test that wasn’t due for another week as you pretended not to be aware of Chenle staring at you.

Glancing at the time, you were so thankful that you could start packing up and getting ready to leave. And then you remembered what you had next, lunch. Looking up from your backpack you had just zipped, you were somewhat amused as Chenle quickly tried to look away from you. You reached forward, tapping his arm to get his attention.

He immediately snapped his head up to look at you attentively. Steeling your nerves, you asked, “Where do you sit for lunch?”

“Outside.”

“Could I sit with you today?”

“Yes.”

And so when the bell rang, you watched longingly as your friends ran out together all in a loud, joyous mass. Donghyuck stayed back to wait for you to join them, but you dismissed him with a short wave. Hopefully, if this went according to Mr. Zhong’s plan, you could introduce Chenle to them soon and be back in that mess you loved so much.

He quickly went to put his things away, then led the way out of the now-empty library. Chewing on your lip, you walked beside him through the halls, occasionally exchanging passing greetings to your friends and teammates. You knew that they were all wondering who you were with and why. Not necessarily in a snotty popularity way—well, in most cases—but because you had genuinely never mentioned Chenle before or even talked to him before today. Pushing the doors to the outside quad open, you let Chenle lead you out to a table settled underneath a tree in the far corner.

Today was one of your two days out of five where you had to bring your lunch instead of purchasing it from the cafeteria, as per the cheapest meal plan at the academy. Although you reckoned that you could buy lunch everyday now that the Zhongs were paying for it. Chenle had also brought his own, laying out the contents of his bag gently on the tabletop. He had a rather large bento box filled with various foods, a bag of cookies, and what looked like some very expensive juice.

You, on the other hand, had a container of stew your mother made last night, and your reusable water bottle you would need to refill at the water fountain soon. Poking through it with your spoon, your mouth contorted into a grimace when you saw the contents of it. Sighing, you closed the lid again, wiping your spoon off with a napkin and instead taking a sip of your water.

Finally, you heard more than a one-word sentence from Chenle. In fact, it was an actual, real question, too. “Why aren’t you eating?” He was sat perfectly poised, chopsticks held delicately in his hand as his head was tilted in confusion.

“I grabbed the wrong container this morning, this is my dad’s instead of mine.” You admitted, pushing it further away from you. “I’m allergic to bean sprouts, but they’re his favorite.”

“That’s an… oddly specific thing to be allergic to.”

You shrugged, sipping on your water again as you enjoyed the sun on your face for a moment. Chenle spoke up again as he reached forward, taking your container and switching it out for his own, “Here, I like bean sprouts just fine.”

“Oh you don’t have to—” You went to protest, but the boy seemed set on it, having already reached into his bag for a spare pair of metal chopsticks—with his name engraved on the thicker end—to hold out to you.

“Thank you,” You relented, taking the utensil and giving him your own spoon in return. Seeming content, Chenle opened the lid again, eagerly digging into your lunch. You picked at the six different foods in his bento box, feeling guilty as he ate with no complaints. After finishing as much as you wanted, there was still some food left over, which you pushed back over to Chenle.

“Thank you, again.”

“Of course,” Chenle closed the now-empty stew container to return it to you.

There were still twenty minutes left of your lunch period, and the boy across from you seemed to have closed in on himself again as he took out his phone. You did the same, not wanting to force conversation and make this already-forced interaction even more awkward for you. As you listened to your music, you kept one headphone in, just in case Chenle wanted to say something to you again. He didn’t. The two of you were silent for the next fifteen minutes of lunch, you listening to music as you texted the boys’ swim captain, Mark Lee, about your dual meet tomorrow night, and pretended to be oblivious to the fact that Chenle wasn’t as interested in his phone as he seemed. His gaze still drifted to you, nervousness laced with intrigue.

“You want to ask me something, right?” You pointed out after the sixth time you had caught him staring again.

“Uhm,” He coughed awkwardly, trying to find his words. “Yeah.”

“Go ahead, I don’t mind.”

“Why are you, you know, uh, suddenly sitting with me and stuff?”

You took a moment to think, knowing that you couldn’t tell him that his parents were paying you to be his friend. Instead, after remembering an important detail that you wanted to slap yourself upside the head for forgetting, you said, “I’ve always been meaning to talk to you again since we got partnered up for that Literature project freshman year.”

Chenle’s face lit up when you mentioned it, “You remembered?”

“Of course!” You felt guilty at your partial lie—you had only just remembered—but he looked so absolutely ecstatic that you couldn’t take it back. “I just got so busy, I’m sorry.”

“I understand, you’re the girls swim captain and everything. That’s got to be a full-time job itself.”

“Yeah, it is. What have you been doing lately?”

He suddenly seemed slightly embarrassed, looking down at the table as he answered quietly, “Not much. Studying, working at my dad’s office in the summer, that’s about it.”

“It’s good that you’re getting work experience now!” You tried to reassure him about his absolutely boring life, earning a small smile from the boy.

The bell rang then, and you zipped your lunch bag back into your backpack, standing and waiting for Chenle to put all his stuff away as well. He looked at you in awe as you stood there patiently, rushing to throw everything in and close his bag. Standing up straight, he offered you a sheepish simper before you started leading the way back into the hallways.

“Do you have an empty seat by you in physics?” You queried, despite already knowing the answer yourself. Chenle always sat by himself in class.

“Yes! Mrs. Han might not like you moving, though.”

“She’s my swim coach, it’ll be fine.”

“Oh, right!”

You got to the door outside your next class, both of you slowing to a stop as you had to say goodbye to Chenle, “This is my math class. I’ll see you next period, Chenle.”

He nodded fervently, “Bye, Y/N!”

Giving him one last nod, you turned into the classroom, sights set on the desk beside your friend’s. Yeojin greeted you with a bright smile, and you wiggled one of her tight space buns in your hand as you passed by her to sit in the desk behind hers. Your deskmate, Donghyuck, was in the middle of leaning over the aisle to try to keep Jiwon—who sat at the desk pair beside yours with Yukhei—from getting her pencil back from him.

“Hyuck, stop.” Mark Lee had just walked in, grabbing the pencil from his friend’s hand to hand it back to Jiwon before taking his own seat at the desk beside Yeojin’s.

“Buzzkill.” Donghyuck stuck his tongue out, to which the other boy only rolled his eyes.

“I’m your captain, I’m _supposed_ to be a buzzkill, so you don’t be an ass while you’re representing the swim team.”

“ _Thank you_ , Mark.” Jiwon said sweetly, then gave Donghyuck a final glare before looking over his shoulder at you. “Hey, Y/N! We missed you at lunch.”

“Sorry, I had some stuff to do with the bursar.” You fibbed, not wanting to even try to explain your sudden attachment to Zhong Chenle right now, praying that nobody had spotted you eating with him at lunch to expose your lie.

“Is everything okay?” Yeojin turned in her seat to ask you with concern. You were the only one of your friends to be at Brenton on a scholarship, which they knew well. It wasn’t something you tried to hide, but they always seemed afraid that you would disappear in a moment’s notice since your parents didn’t have the funds to keep you here.

“Yeah, yeah. It was just some paperwork screw-up with what meal plan I had chosen. I don’t even know why I had to be there or why they kept me for the whole period.”

“Ah, good.”

* * *

When your last period started, you had barely ducked into the classroom on time, mumbling an apology to your teacher/coach before speedwalking to your promised empty seat beside Chenle. He immediately brightened up, clearly still surprised that you had sat by him. Bringing out your notebook, you hummed in content when Mrs. Han announced that it would be a personal studying day, which meant that you could get a head start on your reading tonight and have less homework to do after swim practice.

“Do you want a textbook?” You asked Chenle as you laid your hands on your desk, preparing yourself to stand up.

“Oh, yes please.” He nodded, and you then stood up, walking to the other side of the room where the bookshelf of extra textbooks was.

You walked past Yukhei’s desk, gently smacking the back of his head. An embarrassing yelp burst out from your mouth when his hand came out to pinch your side, right where he knew you were ticklish. You instinctively crouched down, protecting your sensitive sides as you glared up at him. Mrs. Han had looked up from her desk—as had most everyone in the room—but when she saw who it was, she immediately turned back to the grades she was entering into the online database.

“You’re the worst.”

Yukhei shrugged, with his ever-present smirk across his face. Standing up, you continued on to the bookshelf when yet another hand tickled your side again. You thankfully kept your noises at bay, but nonetheless swatted at Donghyuck’s arm. He grinned at your annoyance, earning a smack even harder than the one you gave Yukhei. Finally, you could grab the two textbooks that had been your original goal. This time you went the long way back to yours and Chenle’s desks so that you wouldn’t have to walk by your friends again, still glaring at them in betrayal.

Chenle accepted the textbook from you gratefully, speaking softly in the quiet room as he asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” You waved off his concerns as you sat beside him and began fingering through the pages. “Yukhei’s just my big dumb friend. And Donghyuck is my slightly less big, but equally dumb friend. We mutually harass each other, it’s fine.”

“Oh.”

You had found the right page, and immediately began reading, forgetting all about everything except kinematics.

At the end of class, you went to stand up to grab your bag to put your notebook away as Chenle reached over and grabbed your textbook, “Here, I’ll put them away.”

“Oh, thanks!” You offered him a genuine smile, one that he returned shyly.

Zipping up your backpack, you immediately let out a groan when it was scooped up by much longer arms from over your shoulder. You turned to the perpetrator, eyes already rolling as you were faced with Yukhei, Donghyuck, and Jeno, all seeming very pleased about having stolen your bag.

“Guess you guys are carrying it to the pool, then.” You pivoted on your heel, walking out of the classroom without another look over your shoulder.


	2. [two]

“Y/N!” Donghyuck had yelled out in the quiet library, startling everybody in the vicinity.

You had hoped that by coming in a little late to your study period, everybody would be studying, and you could avoid being questioned about not sitting with your swim team for the third week in a row. At first, they had accepted your reasoning of tests in your AP classes, but once all of your unit tests had passed and it was a relatively quiet time in terms of schoolwork, they started to get suspicious. You just weren’t ready to introduce Chenle to them yet.

Pretending that you hadn’t heard him, you steeled your nerves and continued on your way to the back corner where Chenle was waiting as always. Your lonely friend watched you with intrigue as you took the seat beside him, your backs to the librarian’s desk as per usual. That was how you two could get away with watching videos together and showing each other things on your phones, as long as you didn’t giggle too loud.

Chenle didn’t take his phone out when you sat down, instead turning sideways in his chair to fully face you. No way you could get up to your usual study hall shenanigans now. He must want to talk.

“What’s up?” You titled your head questioningly, resting your cheek on your hand.

His anxiety with being around you had generally faded, but now he was fidgeting again, unable to look you in the eye. After taking a deep breath, he started quietly, “Do you want to maybe… come over to, uhm, my house, for dinner tonight?”

Relief washed over you, so happy that it wasn’t anything serious or bad or weird. Letting out a short burst of air that was nearly a laugh, you nodded, “Sure, yeah. Does that mean I’m going to meet your parents?”

“Actually no, they’re on a business trip. Dinner will most likely be delivery, if that’s okay with you. If not, we have our private chef that could—”

“Delivery is just fine, Chenle.”

You were even more relieved that you wouldn’t have to see his parents again. As far as you were concerned with, they had paid for your first semester and bought you new swim equipment, so you had no desire to interact with them. You were both holding up your ends of the deal, there was no reason to even be in the same room as them.

“You could come over right after school, if you want. We could hang out a bit before eating. I have a lot of video games, or we could watch a movie, or there’s some swings in my backyard, or—”

You cut him off with a gentle hand on his forearm, “Wish I could, but I have swim practice tonight. I’ll come right after then, okay?”

“Okay.” He smiled, accepting the slight change of plans.

* * *

After showering to rinse off as much of the chlorine off your body as possible and returning to real clothes, you caught up to Mark in the parking lot. As soon as you had joined him, you started the short trek out to where he had parked.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” You apologized, still messing with your wet hair. “I had to shower, dry off again, and figure out what the hell _this_ is doing.”

In reality, you had dawdled around wasting as much time as possible, not wanting your teammates to see you leaving with Mark. It wasn’t that you didn’t like your co-captain, but there would be a million questions to deal with since you normally walked to the closest bus stop to take public transportation home. You didn’t want to tell any of your other friends what you were doing, only trusting Mark not to blab about it. You had accosted him as soon as you’d gotten onto the pool deck, quietly asking if he’d drive you to your friend’s house after practice.

“It’s fine, Y/N.” Mark reassured you, clicking his remote to unlock his car.

Opening the passenger side door, you tossed your stuff into the backseat before getting in yourself. You both buckled up, and Mark started his car, hand resting on the stick to reverse out of the parking spot.

“So where is this friend’s house?”

“Uh,” You looked back at the text Chenle had sent you. “It’s in Aura Manors, do you know that neighborhood? It’s off of—”

“June Parkway,” he finished your sentence, sounding incredulous. “Yeah, I know it. It’s only the most expensive neighborhood to live in in Seoul. Holy shit, does this person go to Brenton? I knew it was a rich person school, but I didn’t realize we had someone _that_ rich.”

“…How rich?”

“Only multi-billionaires and richer can afford that.”

Your eyes widened to the size of the moon as you felt your mouth dry. All of your friends were rich, especially compared to you, but none of them were even close to being nearly trillionaires.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” He scoffed, making a turn away from the aquatic complex. “Who _is_ this friend, Y/N?”

At his question, you shifted awkwardly in your seat, unsure of if you actually wanted to tell him exactly who it was. But you figured there was no harm in telling Mark, he was pretty chill about everything, and was surprisingly good at keeping secrets.

“Zhong Chenle.”

You could tell that you had caught him off-guard as he almost missed a turn, sharply jerking the steering wheel as to stay on the right path. At least he knew who he was, you were pretty sure nobody else on your swim team knew Chenle, despite having gone to school with him for longer than you, probably since diapers. All the rich kids around here went to the same preschool, primary, middle, and high school.

Mark finally said, “He’s a cool dude, I’m glad you’re friends with him.”

Now it was your turn to be caught off-guard. You hadn’t expected Mark to be harsh or judgmental, but maybe make some kind of neutral comment. Not a genuinely pleased and supportive one.

“Do you know him?”

“We were really good friends when we were little… we used to be neighbors, actually. And then I joined swim, he started learning three new languages, and his parents got a million times richer and moved them to Aura Manors.”

“Ah,” You coughed awkwardly, unsure of what to do with this information. “Do you want to say hi to him, then?”

“Not today, I wouldn’t want to ruin your little date.”

At your immediate indignant reply, Mark snickered, reaching over to tousle your hair teasingly, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. You’re such an easy target, Y/N.”

“And you’re an asshole, Mark.”

“Hey, _I’m_ the one giving _you_ a ride.”

“I’m starting to think it was an excuse just to be able to make fun of me for longer.”

You soon saw the entrance to Aura Manors, and Mark slowed his car down to a stop as he approached a gate with a guardhouse in front of it. He rolled his window down as one guard came out to scribble down his license plate and another addressed him, “Name and who you’re here to see.”

“Mark Lee, here for Zhong Chenle.” He answered clearly, waiting as the guard went back into the small building to make a call.

The guard opened the glass door once again, hand over the receiver as he said, “Mr. Zhong said that he isn’t expecting a Mark Lee.”

“Y/N!” You leaned over Mark’s lap to cry out. “Tell him it’s Y/L/N Y/N.”

You were given a strange look, but nonetheless the guard relayed the message to the person on the other end of the line. She nodded, and hung the phone back up, “You’re good to go.”

With that, she pressed a button, starting the slow opening of the gate, and Mark gave her a final thank you before rolling his window up and approaching the half-open gate. You scanned the numbers of the well-spaced out mansions, each one you were sure had at least a dozen acres attached to it, a nearly impossible commodity to have in the packed urban center of Seoul.

“Oh, there it is!” You called out, finally finding the correct numbers.

Chenle’s house was big. Very big. Very, very big. Very, very, very big.

You weren’t sure what a family of three exactly did with all those rooms, but they had them. Mark had to stop at yet another gate, this time with just a call box, and just for access to the Zhong’s property. He had just come to a stop when there was a loud beep and the gate slowly swung open, allowing the car to pass through. Mark finally pulled all the way up the driveway to where the entrance was, putting the car in park for you to gather your swim bag and school bag from the backseat.

“Thank you so much, Mark.” You thanked him through the open passenger side window.

“No problem, Y/N.” He smiled back, taking his car out of park. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the meet.”

“See you!” You waved to him as he motored off back down the driveway and out of sight.

Approaching the front door, you had just rung when it swung open, revealing a very embarrassed Chenle. “Hey,” He opened it wider for you, “Sorry about all the security stuff, the people around here are pretty paranoid.”

“Well if my house looked this nice, I’d be worried too.” You commented, taking a look around the grandiose foyer you had entered into.

Your friend coughed awkwardly as he continued walking further into the house, leading you towards the kitchen area, “You can put your bags down here, if you want.”

You obliged, watching him with interest as he deftly navigated the endless halls to lead you even further into the house, and your hands continued fidgeting with your still-damp hair.

“Uhm, it’s still kind of early for dinner, we could watch a movie, or I have some video games, or we have a pool out back—”

“I just got out of a pool not even twenty minutes ago,” You reminded him, seeming to fluster him again. “What is up with you? You’re being… really nervous again.”

Chenle gave you a strange look before almost completely changing the subject, “So Mark Lee dropped you off?”

“Yeah, he’s the boy’s captain. I don’t have my own car, so I asked him to give me a ride.”

“Ah.”

“Didn’t you say something about a swing set earlier?”

His face lit up at your reminder, already starting towards the sliding glass door on the other side of the huge living room, “Yeah, yeah! It’s out back.“

You lightly pushed his shoulders in an attempt to hurry him along, “Well then let’s go, LeLe!”

“LeLe?” He stopped in his tracks, looking at you in absolute wonder at the nickname that had just slipped out of your mouth.

“What? You don’t like it?”

Chenle shook his head fervently, “I’ve just, never really had a nickname that you know, wasn’t given to me by my family.”

“Oh, well—”

“I love it, Y/N. Thanks.”

The genuine, soft smile on his face as he looked at you made your stomach feel funny, and you shook your head, taking on your boisterous persona from before, “Sappy time over, let’s go, LeLe!”

As soon as he had opened the door, you burst outside, making a sprint for the huge playset in the corner of the equally huge backyard. Chenle yelled out indignantly from behind you, claiming that you had gotten an unfair head start as he still had to close the door.

You turned around, jogging backwards as you replied, “I didn’t realize we were racing, LeLe!”

“Uh, we’re not!” He said, despite still chasing you.

“No takebacks!”

With that, you turned back around and put on another burst of speed. Your foot wobbled a little bit as you did that, and as a precaution, you slowed down just a tad. Swimmers weren’t too terribly coordinated on land, and you didn’t need to be breaking your ankle at the very beginning of the season. Finally, you launched yourself onto a swing, letting out a victorious yell.

Chenle slowed down as he soon met you there, shaking his head at your ear-to-ear grin, “You’re mean.”

“And you’re slow.” You teased back, swinging yourself forwards and backwards.

One of your friend’s hands darted out, latching around your ankle and making your swing stop and jerk around precariously. You yelped, trying to yank it back, but only succeeded in making your position even more unstable. Your knuckles turned white around the chain as you tried to beg for your foot back, and Chenle giggled manically, pulling on it to give you another minute scare. Both of you were still laughing as he relented and gave up your foot, instead taking the swing beside you.

“So you call me LeLe now,” He stated as held onto the chains, putting one foot on the seat before stepping the other up, swinging lightly. “But I don’t have a nickname for you.”

“Give me something cute, LeLe.”

“Hm,” the boy took a moment to ponder this before mischievously declaring, “Bean Sprout.”

You wanted to roll your eyes, but instead you merely found yourself smiling down bashfully, involuntarily muted by the light and airy feeling in your chest when he had called you that. Chenle’s demeanor changed as you still hadn’t said anything, face changing to worried, as if he’d mortally offended you. Before he could open his mouth and apologize, you blurted out, “I like it.”

The two of you talked as you swung, and you reveled in the simplicity and ease of it. At one point, Chenle had hopped off and came behind you, gently pushing you forwards. You kept chatting, watching the sun start to lower in the sky.

“Hey, maybe we should order the food, soon, LeLe.” You suggested, digging your toes into the ground below you to slow down, and tilted your head back to look at Chenle.

Looking back down at you, he stopped for a moment, mouth slightly parted before he seemed to regain his wits, “What do you want?”

“Pizza sounds good to me.”

“Bean sprout pizza?”

“If I die, I’m going to haunt your bitch ass forever.”

Chenle grinned, “Noted.”

* * *

After you had both pigged out on the two large pizzas he’d ordered, and binged a couple superhero movies, you determined that you’d have to be going home. Removing the blanket you had spread across your lap, you folded it before placing it gently back on the couch. Chenle followed you to the kitchen, rubbing his eyes as his socks shuffled along the tile floors.

“I’ll take the bus home, my stop’s only like, a twenty-minute ride away.” You explained, slipping your shoes back on and retrieving your transportation card from your backpack.

“At this hour?” Your friend asked, a small frown across his face.

“Yeah. Chenle, I’ve been riding public transportation alone for most of my secondary educational career, I’ll be fine.”

“Nope,” He said firmly, securing a set of keys from the kitchen counter. “Tonight I’m taking you home, _and_ I’m going to give you the number of my driver, for future use.”

“I’m never going to use it,” You informed him, nonetheless giving him your phone to punch in the number.

He sighed, handing you the device back, “I know, Bean Sprout. It makes me feel better knowing that you have the option, though.”

You nodded with a small chuckle, but the seriousness on his face made you quiet.

“I’m serious, Y/N. You’re my only friend, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“How about I introduce you to some other people tomorrow, so you have other friends, too.” You tried to lighten the conversation, uncomfortable at how sincere and meaningful he was about your well-being.

The concern on his face never left his features, even as you waved to him from your front porch later, having arrived safely at your front door.

* * *

You determined that the first person you could introduce Chenle to was Mark, since they already sort of knew each other, and Mark would definitely make him the least uncomfortable out of all your friends. Hopefully.

So you had invited Mark to eat at your lunch table that Wednesday, disguising it to your other teammates as last-minute team captain stuff for your meet that night. You had Chenle go to lunch ahead of you, so that you could meet Mark by his locker and bring him to the table yourself. With bated breath, you approached the table under the tree, where Chenle was waiting patiently with his food out.

Mark sat down beside you, offering your friend a bright smile, “Hey, Chenle.”

“Hi, Mark.” Chenle replied awkwardly, and you offered him a discrete thumbs-up.

You could see that he was already turning in on himself again, and spoke up, “Mark told me that you guys used to be neighbors, right?”

“Yeah, when we were like, five. You remember that?” Chenle again seemed baffled that someone would remember him, a notion that pained your heart. Who had forgotten him so much that he expected it from everyone?

The two old childhood friends immediately hit it off again, and you marveled at the fact that you’d never seen Mark so enthusiastic and animated when talking to anyone. Maybe you were helping more than just Chenle by reintroducing them.

When the bell rang and the three of you stood up again, Mark suddenly offered, “Dude, you should come to our swim meet tonight! It’s against Lakewood, the cross-town rivals meet! Y/N is facing off against her mortal enemy, Kim Eunjin, in the 200-meter backstroke, it’s going to be insane!”

“Eunjin and I aren’t mortal enemies, Mark.” You scoffed, bumping his shoulder with yours. “That would insinuate that she’s as fast as I am, which she’s _not_.”

Chenle seemed to appreciate your confident retort, chuckling a little bit as he rubbed at the back of his head, “I’d love to, but my parents are dragging me to a business dinner with them. Maybe next time?”

“Oh, our next meet is against Inverness.” Mark complained, reaching over you to push on your friend’s arm. “They only have like, eleven people on their team, it’ll be such a boring one. You’ve gotta come _tonight_!”

“This is not the kind of peer pressure that all those teen movies warned me about.”

You snorted at his comment as the boys’ captain let out another disappointed groan. Reaching the point where you knew Mark would have to split off to go to gym, he was sent off with a flick on the head from yourself and a cheerful goodbye from Chenle. At your own classroom, you said goodbye to Chenle as usual, giving him a short hair ruffle before ducking inside the room to avoid his own mischievous hands.

* * *

You walked into school the next morning with only a _slight_ limp, and half of your team cackling behind you.

“Fuck off, I’m in pain.” You scolded them as you approached your locker, actually not hurting that bad but really just wanting them to leave you alone.

“Fine, fine. See you later, Y/N!” Most of them said goodbye to you brightly, still giggling amongst themselves.

Mark hung around, as you had already told him that Chenle typically met you at your locker before first period. As if on cue, the brunette boy entered your field of vision, face lighting up when he saw you.

“Hey, how was the meet last night? I’m really sorry I couldn’t come.”

“Y/N broke her ass.” Mark blurted out, earning snickers from the both of you. Honestly, it _was_ pretty funny, when all of your teammates weren’t teasing you about it.

Chenle was confused and concerned, “What? What happened?”

“I slipped on deck and fell onto a lane line,” You explained, reaching into your pocket for your phone. “Do you want to see pictures of it? It’s bruising like hell already.”

“No! No! No!”

You rolled your eyes as he went to cover his own, “Calm down, LeLe, it’s not like they’re actual booty pics. You can barely tell what you’re looking at, it’s really more my thigh than my ass.”

He hesitantly brought his hands down from his face as you clicked on a picture, putting the red and blue marks going down your cheek and thigh on full display on your phone screen. You swiped to a more close-up one, more fascinated than horrified at the painful sight of the exploded veins and scraped skin.

Chenle, on the other hand, seemed even more distressed than before, “Oh my god, Y/N!”

“Yeah, I fell on the harder plastic part where you adjust it, and like, the metal hook and everything.” You shrugged, tucking your phone back away. “But I still beat Kim Eunjin, even with a busted ass.”

“You swam like that?”

“Still kicked ass with a broken ass,” Mark answered proudly, patting your head.

You shrugged, “What can I say?”

“Anyway, I need to get going, Hyuck and Yuk said they wanted to run something asshole-ish by me before they do it.”

“Go, control your imbecile boys.”

At your shooing, Mark took off down the hall, leaving just you and Chenle alone now. Retrieving a binder and replacing it with a couple notebooks, you shut your locker to turn to your friend with a bright smile, “So how was the business dinner, LeLe?”

“Boring, boring, boring, and did I mention boring?” Chenle declared with a sigh, starting to lead the way to his own locker on the other side of the building, with you limping along beside him.

“Bring me next time, I can make it a little less boring, I bet.”

“By showing kajillionaire CEOs pictures of your bruised ass? I don’t think so.”

You slapped a hand across his chest, eliciting a small yelp from him as you replied indignantly, “I wouldn’t do that!”

“But you _would_ break my sternum,” He rubbed at his chest where you had hit him, earning an eye roll from you.

“And I’ll do it again.” You retorted, linking your arm with his as you continued through the halls.

Chenle sighed, affectionately resting his head against yours for a moment, “I don’t doubt it, Bean Sprout.”

As you watched him switch out his own binders and folders and notebooks, you hummed lightly to yourself. You were in a good mood this morning, the unfortunate accident with your butt from last night unable to deter your happiness from winning, and just from seeing Chenle.

“Are you busy later?”

His eyebrows shot up as he went to put a binder in his bag, “I’ll have some AP Calc homework, but other than that, no. Why?”

“We should go get some ice cream.”

“Uh, sure. Sounds good to me.”

“Cool! I’m done with swim practice at four-thirty, you can meet me at the pool then.”

* * *

“Alright, hundred smooth cool-down and then you’re all done!” Your coach announced as you chugged some water at the end of your lane.

Nodding, you had just put your goggles back on when you noticed a familiar figure enter the building, hands awkwardly stuffed in his pockets as he took some hesitant steps towards the bleachers further inside. You hadn’t expected him to actually come inside, but nonetheless you waved to Chenle, sure that he probably couldn’t quite recognize you with your cap and goggles on. Right as he had waved back, Yeojin reminded you to go, and you took off underwater.

When everyone had finished, you pulled yourself out of the pool, peeling your cap and goggles off your head. Returning the fancy new equipment you’d gotten courtesy of the Zhongs to your swim bag, you moved towards the mass of other bags on one of the tables with all your friends, taking a few more sips of water as they all had various things to say about the set you just swam.

“I don’t care what you guys say, the one-hundred tombstone kicks are the best!” Jeno argued, earning groans from the rest of you.

Chenle was shifting his weight uncomfortably from leg to leg as he stood by the bleachers, and you eagerly waved him over. Might as well bring on the awkward questions sooner rather than later. Despite the chill the indoor aquatic center always had, his cheeks were a warm pink as he seemed unsure of where to place his eyes as he approached you.

“Hey, LeLe!” You greeted him brightly, stuffing your cap and goggles into your bag before taking your hair down.

“Uhm— hi.” He coughed awkwardly, and you could see that all of your friends were biting back their laughter at his discomfort with the situation.

“What, have you never been to a pool?” You teased, pinching his flushed cheek with your still-damp hand.

“I have.” He pouted a little as he wiped at the water you’d just left on his skin.

Yukhei joined in, “Maybe he feels intimidated.”

Raising an eyebrow at your friend, you implored him to continue.

“Because, you know,” He exchanged looks with Jeno, Jaemin, and Donghyuck, and they all went to melodramatically flex their arms and pecs. “We’re built like Greek gods.”

“Oh _God._ ” You guffawed, snapping your wet towel at their exposed legs, causing them to recoil away as they kept their shit-eating grins on their faces. “You all are _impossible_ to hold a normal conversation with.”

They were still laughing as they shrugged, Yukhei leaning over to towel off his hair as Mark emerged from the men’s locker room, basketball shorts having replaced his jammers. He gave a friendly wave to Chenle as he continued on his way towards the exit. Gesturing to Chenle to wait a minute, you caught up to Mark, walking with him towards the entrance of the pool.

“Hey, so I need your help with the next team dinner.” You requested, brushing your fingers through your wet hair. “Jiwon’s aunt bailed out on catering for us.”

“I’ll find someone else, don’t worry.” Mark reassured you, and you breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you so much!”

“Of course, of course. I’ll see you later, Y/N.”

Just as you gave Mark your own goodbye, Jiwon yelled out your name from the locker room side of the deck, accompanied by Yeojin and Yeeun as they were stood outside the girls’ locker room. The four of you usually changed and left together, and you knew that you couldn’t get out of the locker room gossip today, especially since you had brought Chenle on deck.

“Coming!” You called back, carefully making your way across the wet deck with your bare feet. As you passed by Chenle, you briefly offered him an explanation. “Captain stuff,” you gestured to the doors Mark had just exited through, then pointed to the three girls who were waiting for you, “I need to go change.”

Chenle nodded as you slung your bag over your shoulder to disappear into the locker room with your friends. In the back of your mind, you hoped that the boys wouldn’t try to keep poking fun at your other friend, but you had a more pressing issue. All of the girls were firing questions, jokes, and comments at you, making your head spin as you stripped and started drying off.

“Chenle’s… cute.” Yeeun finally settled on an adjective to use for him as she brushed out her wet hair with her fingers.

“I mean, sure.” You shrugged, pulling on your underwear and rooting through your swim bag for a bra. “But what did you actually want to say?”

“I’m not trying to sound offensive, but—”

“You’re going to be anyway,” Jiwon interrupted her with a scoff, squirting out lotion to start spreading all across her chlorine-dried skin.

Yeeun sighed as she tried to choose her words carefully, “He’s not, you know, anyone who was on my radar for you.”

“We’re not dating.” You deadpanned, knowing that this was going to lead up to the fact that you shouldn’t be dating someone who didn’t do a sport and wasn’t nearly as well-known in your school. Or more specifically, wasn’t Mark.

It wasn’t a hidden fact to you or him that most everyone on the swim team wanted the two of you to date. The boys’ captain and girls’ captain of the swim team dating sounded like every beautifully cliché teen romance ever. But, you just never ended up liking Mark like that, and he was way too focused on getting varsity times and school records that you were pretty sure he didn’t have the brain capacity to even _think_ about liking anyone.

“Good, because I’m pretty sure he might be gay,” Yeojin piped up with a giggle at the eyebrow you raised questioningly at her. “Did you see the way his eyes practically popped out of his skull when the guys flexed?”

“Anybody with functioning eyes and a brain would react the same way, no matter their sexuality.” Yeeun countered, and you shook your head with a smile as you pulled on your shorts and t-shirt.

Fixing up your reflection in the mirror, you determined that you might as well go now, while the others were still mostly naked. “Anyway, I’ll see you girls tomorrow!” You said cheerfully, slinging your heavier bookbag over one shoulder and carrying your lighter swim bag in hand.

They protested at you leaving so soon but couldn’t do much since the most-dressed out of all of them was still missing a shirt and shoes. Back on deck, you were thankful that the rest of your team was leaving Chenle alone, save for your coach. She seemed to be interrogating your friend as to why he was here, forcing you to come to his rescue as he just kept stammering.

“Hi, Coach Han!” You greeted her brightly as you sidled up beside your friend, casually looping your arm through his. “That was a really good set today, I wish we could’ve had more time to get through the last round, though.”

In fact, you had hated the workout she’d written up for today and had been truly overjoyed when she announced that you wouldn’t be able to finish the fifth and final round of it. Coach Han looked at you in mild confusion but didn’t press whatever issue she had been harassing Chenle about earlier.

“We’ll probably be able to finish the whole thing later on in the season, when everyone’s back in shape again.” She shook her head disapprovingly. “Lee Jeno and Jang Yeeun each took one month off, and Na Jaemin took _three_ months of break from club swim in our off-season, and oh boy, they’re feeling it now.”

“I can tell, Jaemin’s gained nearly five seconds in his 100-meter butterfly.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

Stifling your chuckles at your coach’s disdain with your teammates, you dismissed yourself, “We need to get going, we have the AP Chemistry exam tomorrow that we need to study for. I’ll see you tomorrow, Coach Han.”

“Bye, Y/N, Chenle.” She nodded approvingly at your reasoning for leaving, and you eagerly tugged your friend out of the building.

“Uhm, I’m not in AP Chem.” Chenle stated after the automatic doors had closed behind you.

“I know, but she _might_ have killed me if I told her we were going to get ice cream.”

“Ah, I see.”

You peered around the parking lot comically, feigning disappointment as you said, “Oh, no limo, huh? We’ll have to walk like filthy peasants, I guess.”

He shook his head, gently pulling your backpack strap to encourage you to take it off. When you had done so, he pulled it onto his own shoulder, and you filled your empty back with your swim bag.

“You said that the shop was a five-minute walk from here. I didn’t need to disturb Seongjoon for that.” Chenle readjusted your bag to balance out the weight with his own schoolbag on his other shoulder.

“Well how did you get here, then?”

“I stayed after school to help Mr. Jang grade papers for extra credit, so I just walked over afterwards.”

“Teacher’s pet.”

“Says the girl who just kissed Mrs. Han’s ass for three minutes straight.”

“Not in the context of school.”

“Coach’s pet.”

Your banter continued on as you walked down the sidewalk, not ceasing even when you had entered the shop. Chenle had mispronounced an ice cream flavor, causing you to double over laughing, sputtering out the mispronunciation over and over again. The man behind the counter waited patiently for you to recover, while your friend kneed the half of your butt that had been bruised the night before, earning a tiny ‘ouch’ from you.

Finally, you had sobered up, and bit back laughter as you ordered, “Hi, sorry. I’d like one D-Docolete Chelight.”

Chenle let out a muffled screech, pinching your side as you started cackling again, eyes watering as you couldn’t stop laughing. You kept wheezing until he had stuffed an ice cream cone in your mouth and handed the man the correct amount for the two ice creams. Grabbing your own, you were still snickering lightly as you licked the sweet cream from the corners of your mouth.

Following your friend back outside, you sat at a small table under the awning of the shop, tucked just out of reach of the ever-blazing sun. Chenle was still glaring at you as the two of you ate your ice cream in quiet, and you innocently licked at your scoops. He was most of the way done with his when you noticed the drops of pink dessert all around his mouth.

“You’ve got something on your face, LeLe.” You giggled, grabbing a napkin to reach over and wipe at the strawberry ice cream dribbling down his chin.

“Oh jeez, I’m a mess, aren’t I?” He said sheepishly, ducking his head in embarrassment as you kept trying to clean him up.

Without thinking, you replied, “A pretty cute mess.”

You froze as soon as you said it, and Chenle’s head snapped up to look at you, mouth parted in absolute awe. Despite the cold ice cream still across your tongue, your cheeks were heating up. The napkin had dropped from your hand in surprise, leaving your fingers barely gracing over his cheek, jawline, and mouth.

A moment later, and you were pretty sure you had kissed. That’s what Chenle knocking his teeth into yours was supposed to be, right?

“Oh shit, fuck, I’m sorry. Did I break one of your teeth? Oh fuck, oh no,” Chenle started stammering at your lack of response, as you were too stunned and trying to process your own thoughts to actually say or do much of anything in the moment.

“My teeth are intact,” You finally managed to say, which didn’t do much to reassure the worried boy.

“I messed it up, I fucked it all up, I’m sorry, Y/N—”

“I… like you too, Chenle.”

This stopped his nervous rambles in their tracks, his lips halting as a vaguely-choke-like sound came from his throat. Your skin was on fire as you had admitted it, looking away from him for a moment, “And uhm, maybe we can try the kissing thing again later.”

“O-Okay, yeah.” He coughed out, returning his ice cream to his mouth.

Neither of you looked at each other, both of your faces too red and nerves too frazzled to do so. And yet, your hands still clumsily found each other under the table, sweaty palms meeting sweaty palms as you laced them together.


	3. [three]

Cold. Hot.

Your burning skin was enveloped in the icy cool water as you leapt forward off the block, entering fingertips first, breath bated and just enough as you forcefully kicked underwater. It was your seventeenth stroke when you finally allowed yourself to breathe, the split-second of inhalation enough to replenish your depleted lungs well through your flip turn and partway return to the side of the pool you had started on. It was only a 100, meaning that holding your breath and powering forwards was more important than breathing or pacing yourself. Down and back, that was it.

You had just slammed your hand against the touch pad when you could hear the satisfying splash of your teammate entering the water from above you. Taking a moment on the wall, you then pulled yourself out with burning yet energized arms, screaming along with the other girls on your relay as you cheered on Changwon, your best freestyle sprinter, and the anchor of your relay.

She just out-touched the girl in the lane next to her, and as the time popped up on the scoreboard across the pool, you all let out another victorious yell.

**_3:42.57_ **

A new school record.

When the other relays had finished, the first heat of the boys’ 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay had done their flyover start, and Changwon had climbed out, the four of you crowded each other, sharing a wet, unstable hug behind the blocks. Your boys’ A relay, which was in the second heat, joined you all, giving their own cheers of congratulation and exaltation.

Panting, you broke away from the mess, giving Yukhei a punch in the arm for good luck on the relay before turning towards the bleachers, eyes scanning the audience for one specific face. You found him, already making his way down to the deck, much to the disgruntlement of the other parents and supporters he had to climb over and in front of. Hurrying over to Chenle as fast as your bare feet on the wet pool deck would safely allow you, you couldn’t wipe the ecstatic grin from your face. When he finally made it to the bottom of the bleachers, he stepped over the rather short and ineffective barrier, with no regard for the fact that the pool deck was only for coaches, swimmers, and officials while a meet was in session.

You threw your arms around him, still panting and grinning madly. He’d gotten used to you soaking his shirts through at meets, or whenever he would come see you after practice, not even complaining this time as he held you just as tightly.

“Congratulations, Y/N!” He squealed in your ear, rocking the two of you side to side energetically. “That was freaking insane! I could barely see you moving through that water! _Legend!_ Absolute freaking _legend!_ ”

Pulling your face back from the hug but keeping your arms as tightly around him as ever, you kissed his cheek before hugging him again, “Thanks, LeLe.”

“Of—” He coughed the squeak out of his voice. “Of course, Bean Sprout.”

After the meet that night, your entire team plus most swimmers’ family and friends went out to dinner, much to the horror and headache of the poor staff of the restaurant you’d chosen. It was the first meet of the National Series, where you had to qualify to move onto the next level. Since it was also your last year, you were determined to get to Nationals. So far you were on track, having just finished Districts, which left only Regionals between you and Nationals. Having qualified in all of your events from tonight for Regionals, you had high hopes for your chances this year.

Mark had driven you, Chenle, and Yeojin to the restaurant, and decided to leave the windows rolled down for some reason. That, paired with your still-wet hair, cool skin from the pool, and heavy air conditioning in the restaurant left you with a shiver you hoped wasn’t too visible. But you figured that it was, as Chenle had already offered to get you his sweatshirt from the car before your drinks were even ordered. It wasn’t really an offer, as you were going to receive it either way. 

Your friends questioned why you hadn’t gotten a team sweatshirt like them, and despite knowing that the Zhongs would have paid for it if you asked, you couldn’t bring yourself to. It was more expensive than an average hoodie should have been, and they’d already bought you all the best equipment you could’ve hoped for, as well as your attendance to Brenton. You couldn’t ask for anything frivolous, especially since you were now even closer to Chenle than you had expected. It wasn’t a job or chore for you to hang out with him, you were genuinely, truly, _very_ into him.

Chenle was still out at Mark’s car when the rather tired waitress came by to take drink orders, so you put in your boyfriend’s normal Dr. Pepper request, as well as your own. When he returned, he insistently slipped the sweatshirt over your head and arms before taking his seat beside you again, listening attentively to the conversation with your teammates.

He had seemed to relax around them, thankfully, despite his initial awkwardness, especially with your guy teammates. Yeeun and some of the other much more stuck-up people had a somewhat-hidden disdain for your choice of boyfriend, but they were never overtly rude, and at the end of the day you didn’t care. Chenle made you happy and was the most supportive and genuine guy you could hope to date.

You pulled the sleeve ends over your hands, resting your head on your newfound sweater paws, sleepily listening to Yukhei and Mark recount their 4 x 100 medley relay win against Jooin Institution in an odd mix of Korean, English, and some form of communication that you could only describe as ‘ _dudebro.’_ You giggled a little bit, taking a lazy bite of food from Chenle’s plate as Donghyuck butted in to add his own opinion.

As the dinner came to a close, the wait staff then had to sort out the checks, and you were too tired to quite remember or realize if you had paid for your own or if it was added onto Chenle’s bill. You were concerned with carefully boxing up your leftovers with hands trembling from exhaustion. Mark looked over at you two with an amused simper as your equally-tired boyfriend attempted to help you close the lid of your to-go box, “Am I giving you guys a ride home?”

“No, I’ve got it.” Chenle declined, tapping his phone.

“Alright, I’ll see you guys later, then!” Mark grinned, leading himself, Jeno, Jaemin, and Yeojin all out to the parking lot.

You stood on the sidewalk out in front of the restaurant, food and swim bag resting on the ground beside you. Rolling forward and backwards along your feet, you tried to keep your quickly closing eyes open.

Chenle reached out to take your free hand in his, squeezing it gently, “You did great tonight, Bean Sprout.”

“Thanks, LeLe.” You grinned back, leaning into him and letting yourself revel in the moment. With his warm sweatshirt over your body, and him right next to you, looking at you like you owned his entire life, you suddenly weren’t tired. Instead, every fiber of you was hyperaware of everything happening in that moment.

You hadn’t even discussed kissing again since that first awkward one at the ice cream shop that you couldn’t even really classify as a kiss. And that cheek kiss you’d given him after your race was the closest thing you’d come to the real thing. In this instance, you couldn’t think about anything else except how much you wanted to kiss him _right now_.

“Chenle,” You called out softly for him, bringing your face back up to his, closer than before.

“Hm?”

“Can we try, you know, the kissing thing again?”

“Mhm.” He nodded firmly, alleviating some of the nervousness coursing through your body at his amusing enthusiasm.

Facing him, you took a deep breath through your nose, keeping one hand laced with his as you were unsure of where to put the other one. Before, you’d had it kind of on his face, but you didn’t know if you should return it there, place it somewhere else, or just let it hang limply by your side. Steeling your nerves, you decided to rest it on his shoulder, right beside the dip where it connected to his neck. His breaths were gently gliding over your skin as his eyes were fixated on you and your movements, waiting for you to do something, anything.

Pulling him forward gently with your hand lightly gripping at his shoulder, eyes still wide open as you were much too afraid of missing and accidentally knocking teeth again or kissing his chin or something dumb. You took a moment to contemplate, angling your head to one side, then the other as you couldn’t quite determine the best angle to approach this at. Chenle let out a short burst of air akin to a laugh at your hesitation, and you retorted with, “Would rather I try to bite _your_ teeth?”

“I did not _bite_ your teeth!” Your boyfriend whined out a response, but you were already focused back on the task at hand.

You finally closed more of the gap between you, still not shutting your eyes until his lips had just touched yours, a sweet ghost of a kiss. It wasn’t electric, like how it was described often in books or movies. Instead, it was just… the skin of your mouths barely touching. You were about to frown, to stutter out an apology that you hadn’t felt anything, and maybe your brain was broken or something, when Chenle leaned forward just a little more, securely locking his lips to yours. And that was when you actually felt something.

Kissing was weird, you thought at first, but when he moved his mouth against yours just a little bit, exciting the hairs along your arms and the back of your neck, you decided that you liked it. It was still weird to you, but a good weird. A weird that you wanted to experience again and again, only with Zhong Chenle.

Unsure of how good his own lung capacity was, you drew back hesitantly. At his gasping for air that he tried to cover up, you stifled a laugh. He clearly did not have a swimmer’s set of lungs like you. When he’d brought his hand back down from his mouth, he was grinning like a maniac, “One more time?”

“Yes.” You agreed, bringing his lips to yours again.

For every brief and beautiful kiss you exchanged, you were starting to get more and more convinced that you never wanted this to stop, that you could kiss Chenle all day long, even when he still occasionally bumped incisors with you, or you would accidentally smush noses together. It was still new, and you figured that you’d get better with practice. Practice. _That_ definitely sounded like a good idea to you.

An awkward cough startled you from the hazy fest of kisses and giggles you were sharing with your boyfriend, and you actually _screeched_ when you saw a dark car pulled up at the curb beside you. Recoiling away from Chenle and the man leaning over the glovebox to address you two from inside the car, you swore you were about to have a stroke, or heart attack, or aneurism or something. At the very least, five years had just been taken off your life.

“Oh, hi, Seongjoon,” Chenle greeted him, voice about three octaves higher than normal as he tried to feign innocence to what his driver had just witnessed.

You approached the curbside again, grabbing your stuff to enter the backseat with your boyfriend. Giving a small hello to the driver, you pressed your warm face into your hands to hide your shame at being caught pretty much making out on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant.

“Should I close the divider, Mr. Zhong?” Seongjoon queried, and you completely missed the sarcasm in his voice, hiding your face even lower now.

“Seongjoon, please.” Your boyfriend groaned, earning a chuckle from the man.

“I’m only teasing you, kid.” He then addressed you, “I’m sorry if I startled you, Y/N. I’m Hong Seongjoon, by the way, Chenle’s driver.”

You mumbled out something of a reply, barely lifting your head out from its safe place tucked between your knees. Never could you ever look this man in the face for the rest of your life. Chenle patted your back before resting a reassuring hand on it, patiently waiting for you to come out of your invisible shame cocoon.

As the car pulled to a stop at what you guessed to be your house, you still hadn’t removed your gaze from where it was firmly locked on the small patch of dark grey carpet underfoot. “Bean Sprout, did you fall asleep or something?”

“No,” You muttered, sitting up straight in your seat again. Fumbling around for a moment, you unbuckled your seatbelt then opened the door.

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Chenle declared, scooting out behind you as you slung your swim bag over your shoulder.

At your front door, you set your bag down to try to peel his sweatshirt off and return it to him, but he halted your hands right as they had grabbed the hem, “You can keep it, I have a million more.”

“How cheesy,” You uttered a half-hearted, sarcastic retort, too tired to put up much of a fight.

“Clichés exist for a reason, they’re freaking cute.”

“Like you.”

“Look who’s being cheesy now.”

You gave him a sleepy smile at that, picking up your bag again and resting a hand on the door handle, “Goodnight, LeLe.”

“Night, Bean.” One of his hands came to grab your own, tugging lightly and you already knew what he wanted.

Despite still being mortified from earlier, you gave him one last brief kiss, sincerely hoping that your parents were dead asleep with no possible chance of knowing what you were doing in this moment. Not that they’d disapprove, but they’d _over-_ approve. So far, they had—in your opinion—been _way_ too enthused about your blossoming relationship with Chenle.

You suddenly broke the kiss, pushing your door open quickly and disappearing behind it, slamming it playfully behind you. Chenle was left on your porch, bewildered and pouting. You tapped on the window beside him, giving him a last wave and shooing him back towards his car. He shook his head at your antics, obliging nonetheless.

* * *

You were very, extremely uncomfortable. For many reasons.

First was the heels and somewhat poofy dress you were wearing, feeling much more comfortable in your swimsuit than your current ensemble.

Second was the awkward ride with Chenle’s parents to the venue, you having to pretend that it was your first time meeting them, not your second after the initial offer to pay you to befriend their son.

Third was the eyes that followed you through the rather lavish ballroom, scrutinizing you as an outsider.

Last was the fact that you couldn’t even cling onto your boyfriend for any sort of comfort, you had to be satisfied with his arm loosely looped with yours.

He had informed you when he’d first invited you to this event that you wouldn’t be able to be as affectionate as you normally were, needing to keep up appearances and properness or whatever. You had agreed but didn’t expect the sensation of a rash breaking out just from a few unpleasant glances from the other patrons. Sure, you probably _didn’t_ have hives colonizing your neck, but that was the closest analogy you could make to how you felt right then. Oh, and like you needed to puke.

Mr. and Mrs. Zhong walked a couple steps ahead of you two, in a similar position as you, except much closer. Chenle was keeping you even further away than when you’d first started your hesitant friendship, something that didn’t go unnoticed by you.

You leaned over to whisper to him, “Is this a royal ball of some kind?”

“What? No, there’s not real royalty anymore, Y/N. It’s just one of my father’s business partners’ son’s birthday party.” He replied, clearly bewildered and also hoping that nobody could overhear your hushed conversation.

“I’m kidding, LeLe. So who’s the birthday boy anyway?”

“Over there, with the red sash.” He nodded towards a group of older boys, where one stood out in his dark black ensemble and flaming red sash hung around him. “Nakamoto Yuta. He graduated from our school a couple years before we became freshmen.”

“Oh, so he’s super old?”

“It _is_ his 24th birthday party.” He implicitly confirmed your statement, making the both of you giggle.

Mrs. Zhong suddenly turned around, giving you both a disapproving look at your snickers, but was rather pleasant as she requested, “Chenle, Y/N, you all should go say hello to Yuta and his friends.”

Chenle nodded in assent, guiding you across the room towards the circle of boys you all guessed to be at least three years older than you. You thought that you might have recognized one from the swim team your freshman year, but you couldn’t be quite sure.

“Is that Y/L/N Y/N?” The boy who you were now definitely sure you knew called out in disbelief, a flabbergasted grin across his mouth. “Oh my god, you’ve grown so much, freshie!”

“I’m a senior now, Jaehyun.” You informed him, a fond smile on your face nonetheless.

Jung Jaehyun was the boys’ captain your freshman year, which had been his senior year. You hadn’t seen him since the graduation party he had invited you to where you had felt small, poor, insignificant, and alone. Until Donghyuck inevitably found you like he always did and practically forced you to have a good time. You weren’t particularly overjoyed to be seeing your old teammate again, but that didn’t mean you weren’t at least a little happy. It was just that you met him in a rather upsetting time in your life.

“They grow up so fast,” He sighed dramatically. “Mark’s been telling me that you’re killing it this year, Y/N. Four new school records and one Regionals record?”

Of course Mark was still talking to him, Jaehyun was his idol your freshman year. “Well, the Regionals record and one of the school records was for a relay.”

“You’re still freaking killing it, Y/N.” Chenle interjected with a gentle elbow in your side, leaving you with a still bashful but much softer smile on your face.

“What’s this?” Yuta suddenly spoke up, a mischievous grin on his face as he eyed you and Chenle. “Zhong Chenle perhaps, maybe… has a girlfriend?”

The entire mass of boys went up into an embarrassing chorus of ‘oooooh’s as you felt your entire face, neck, and ears become hot and surely pink. Just as you were about to try to shush them, Chenle practically spat out, “What? No!” and ripped his arm from yours. You looked at him with a sad, angry confusion as the other boys grew silent.

“We’re not dating. My parents requested that Y/N come because she’s gaining attention from a bunch of prestigious universities for swimming. That’s it.” With each word that Chenle clarified the situation with, you felt a snip at each of your heartstrings. He was obviously lying, and you didn’t know why. But you did know that he was much too convincing of a liar, as you bit back your lip to keep it from quivering.

Yuta coughed awkwardly, “Ah. Well, congratulations again, Y/N.”

“Thank you, Yuta.” You muttered back, fingers squeezing tightly around your clutch. “My throat’s a little dry, I’m going to get some water. Excuse me.”

And with that, you pivoted on your heel, hurrying away from the group without another look at Chenle. If he wanted to distance himself from you as much as possible here, then you might as well help him. Was he ashamed of you? You had been so proud to introduce him as your boyfriend to your friends, of how fantastic and cute and wonderful he was. But he seemed to not want to even acknowledge you as a friend around his peers.

When you had located a drinks table, you were thankful for the labels that told you which weren’t alcoholic. Choosing one that was most likely water, you chugged about half of the cool liquid in one go, needing to calm down your flaming, angry, and embarrassed skin. After finishing one, you set it on another table before grabbing another, practically trying to give yourself a brain freeze at this point. That pain would be more welcome than the twisting and aching in your chest.

It didn’t work, and you were still left to feel everything.

“Hope you’re not trying to get drunk on that, freshie.” Jaehyun’s voice came from just behind you as his hand reached over to take the glass from your hand, and you watched him sniff it. “This is water.”

“I know,” You rubbed your bare arms uncomfortably, eyes scanning the rest of the room at where Chenle was still in the circle of boys, not even seeming bothered. “I told you, my mouth was dry.”

“Chenle’s been a dumb boy who doesn’t think before he speaks ever since he was little. I would know, our fathers were childhood friends.” Your old teammate stated, finishing off your water before setting it back down and leaning back against the table to observe the room with you.

“Why are you telling me this? You heard him, we barely know each other.”

“And as soon as you left, he started crying. Eventually, Yuta managed to head-smack it out of him: that you two _are_ dating, and that he just fucked it up, and is so in love with you, and is afraid that he just lost you.”

“He has to come to me to apologize, then.”

When you looked back over to the circle again with this new information, you noticed that the friendly giggles and one of the taller men’s arms around his neck were actually his shoulders stuttering as he sobbed, and a comforting yet stern reassurance. Jaehyun’s ‘ _in love with you_ ’ echoed around in your head, nearly distracting you from his next words.

“You’re damn right. Johnny’s currently telling him to stop being an idiot.” He informed you, gesturing to the two figures. When Chenle was pushed by a different man out of the circle towards your side of the room, Jaehyun stood up straight, readjusting his tie.

“Well, that’s my cue.” He bowed to you, offering you a grin and wink before walking away from you, flicking Chenle’s forehead as he passed by him halfway there.

You made firm eye contact with Chenle as he approached you, waiting for him to do something first. His hands were jammed in his pockets as he looked down at his feet. The awkward tension was practically choking you, and you felt nothing but hate coursing through your veins. Hate for this entire situation, for the fact that you couldn’t just curl up between his arms and watch movies at your house, for the constant reminders around you of how much you didn’t fit in here, and especially for how Chenle had made you feel cast out and unimportant. But strangely, no hate for Chenle. It was still just a feeling that you could now identify properly as _love_ in you for him.

“I’m sorry,” He blurted out, and you could see the tears forming in his eyes.

Holding your hands out, you had just intended for him to take them in his, but instead he flew into your arms, burying his face in your neck as his arms held tightly around your waist and his own chest heaved with sobs. The spectacle garnered a few weird looks from other patrons also at the drinks table, and you nodded self-consciously to them.

“LeLe, come on.” You murmured quietly to him, trying to scoot the two of you a little further out of sight, especially before you started crying. You had mascara to worry about.

The furthest you that could awkwardly shuffle away was a slightly isolated corner behind one of the exquisite pillars of the ballroom. Rubbing Chenle’s back, you blinked a couple times to clear out the tears watering up in your vision.

“LeLe,” You called for him again, wanting him to just look at you.

He stood up, sniffling and trying to wipe at his nose with his suit jacket sleeve, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt you, even though I was, you know, a total asshole. It was just… those guys have been teasing me for everything since I was little, and I didn’t want them to do it again.”

“I forgive you, you idiot.”

The wet spot of tears and what you were pretty sure was also spit that Chenle had left on your exposed collarbone was cool to the air. You took his handkerchief from his pocket to wipe it off, and he cringed at the sight.

“We’re a mess, huh?”

“A pretty cute mess.” You replied, making the both of you laugh lightly.

Handing him the blue cloth square back, you felt a sense of dread at going back to the event. This was the most fun you had all night, and you’d been crying for most of it. Your boyfriend seemed to notice your change in mood again, a grin coming to his still-pink face, “Wanna get out of here?”

“And go where, exactly?” You questioned with an eyebrow raised.

“You choose.”

“Ice cream?”

Chenle nodded, still grinning as he took your hand in his, firmly lacing his fingers with yours. You two speed-walked as you ducked behind pillars, glancing over your shoulders to make sure nobody was watching, giggling every time your foot would accidentally bump into the others’ until you reached the exit. Your lungs reveled in the fresh air flooding them as soon as you stepped outside, hurrying down the grand marble steps and over the cobblestone driveway of the mansion the party was being held at. Slowing Chenle down for a second, you leaned on him as you yanked your silver heels off, grunting in relief as your feet were freed.

* * *

You were sure that you looked strange running into the small ice cream shop at five minutes before closing, dressed in fancy party wear, with you holding your shoes in one hand and Chenle’s hand in the other, and the both of you out of breath from your mad dash down the few blocks from the mansion. The man working behind the counter was at the least surprised as you two stepped up to the counter, still beaming madly and giggling. Chenle ordered this time, messing up ‘Chocolate Delight’ again—this time as ‘Dochlete Clight,’ only making you laugh even harder, eyes practically watering. He chuckled, watching you with a fond smile.

After getting your ice cream, you didn’t sit down outside this time, feeling that you were already annoying this poor man. Instead, you took a walk down the humming streets. Chenle was still as insistent as ever about holding your hand, so he took your phone and shoes from you, letting you hold the cone as well as his hand. Which meant that every twenty seconds or so he’d let out a soft whine, letting you know that he wanted you to hold the singular double scoop cone up to his mouth for him to have a bit. You had taken the first bite into the waffle cone—with a hefty amount of ice cream, too—when an electrifying pain shot up from the roof of your mouth through your brain.

“Fuck!” You hissed, pressing the back of your wrist between your eyes. “Brain freeze.”

The cold pain reminded you of earlier, when you had been trying to drown your pain in ice water. And then Jaehyun had come, telling that Chenle had said he loved you. Your brain was still freezing despite your cheeks heating up at the memory.

In the meantime, Chenle was laughing at your over-eagerness in eating the ice cream, “You good, Bean?”

“Just dandy, LeLe.” You offered the cone back over to him as the pain started receding slightly.

He took a grateful mouthful, and the two of you continued your destination-less walk through the streets. Your mind was still preoccupied on what Jaehyun had said earlier, and you didn’t even notice that the ice cream had been finished off until Chenle’s mouth suddenly touched your fingers, and your wide eyes looked up from the ground at him. He was munching on the very end of the waffle cone, and you forced your heartrate to settle back down as you observed him in the light pouring down from the streetlights above you.

“Chenle?”

“Bean Sprout?”

“Did you tell those guys that you… you love me?”

He halted your walk, his hand stiffening in yours before relaxing again, and a shaky laugh came from him. Chenle squeezed your hand reassuringly, “Mhm.”

And you swore your heart nearly burst out of your chest in that moment. You chewed on your lip anxiously, mind buzzing and vision spinning. Gazing over at him, you were sure that your heartbeat was well over healthy limits as you managed to croak out, “C-Can I hear you say it?”

“Nope.”

Your eyes turned to the size of the moon as your jaw and stomach dropped, earning a slightly sadistic giggle from him. He brought your chin back up with your still-intertwined hands, pressing a soft and sweet kiss to your mouth. You melted into the kiss that vaguely tasted of chocolate, worries fading for a moment as your eyes fluttered shut and your lips meshed with his.

Chenle broke the kiss, eyes crinkling as he grinned brightly, “You have to say it first.”

“What? Why?”

“I made the first move on our first kiss, I think it’s only fair that you say, _you know_ , first.”

“That wasn’t a kiss!” You said indignantly, regaining your normal dynamics. “You _bit_ my freaking teeth! If anything, _I_ initiated our first real kiss, so by your rules, _you_ have to say ‘it’ first!”

He shook his head firmly, and you stubbornly pretended to ‘zip up’ your mouth. Clearly neither of you were going to budge on this any time soon.

“Same time?” He suggested.

“Fine.”

“1, 2, 3.”

Silence.

You two were still locked in your defiant staring contest, either expecting the other not to say anything, or trying to trick the other into saying it first. At this point it was just a battle of wills, to see who would break first. You had a few other moments like this, like when choosing movies to watch, or when he’d try to steal the blanket back from you, or if you’d reach to take his food on a date, or even just whose locker you’d got to first in the morning. Usually, he would be the one who conceded, but something in you pulled you to blurt it out.

“I love you!” “I love you!”

At the same time as Chenle.

You giggled from relief and from the pure comedy of the situation. And then you were kissing Chenle again, the both of you muttering ‘I love you’s in the brief moments where your lips weren’t touching. At some point you had ended up on a park bench, almost drunk off love (and sleep-deprivation), looking at funny videos like you would do during study hall and laughing way too hard at them.

After approximately a hundred yawns from each of you, Chenle called Seongjoon to come get you two, neither of you having any idea how to get to either of your houses from where you were. And on your porch step that night, you kissed Chenle goodnight and told him you loved him again, hearing those same three beautiful words back.

* * *

The next day was a Monday morning, and you knew that you should’ve been exhausted from your late and busy night. But instead, you were buzzing with excitement, knowing that you’d be seeing Chenle in just a mere hour and a half from waking up. Sending him a short good morning text, you didn’t look at your phone again as you got ready for school, or even as you rode on the bus, needing to finish up a couple math problems before climbing over a disgruntled businesswoman to get off at the right stop.

You had been waiting at your locker for ten minutes when you got concerned, bringing your phone out for the first time since you’d woken up. Chenle hadn’t replied to your text yet, and you decided to text him again, afraid that he had gotten sick or something.

[you: hey, are you coming to school today?]

[you: if not, then i hope everything is okay! ily!]

The bad feeling in your stomach only magnified when you walked into your first period and were immediately told to go to the bursar’s office. Again.

Knocking on Mr. Jeon’s door, your anxiety spiked when you saw that the bursar wasn’t even in the office, just Mr. and Mrs. Zhong. You closed the door behind you, bowing respectfully to them. “Hello, Mr. Zhong, Mrs. Zhong.”

Mr. Zhong didn’t even nod in acknowledgement to your greeting, immediately deadpanning, “Break up with Chenle, or we will stop paying for you to attend Brenton Academy.”

You practically choked on your own tongue, mind clouding with so many racing thoughts that it couldn’t even remember some basic functions. Finally, you were able to cough out, “Excuse me?”

“The deal was for you to befriend him, not… this. Especially that stunt you pulled last night.”

Stunt? All you two did was get some ice cream without telling them and staying out a little later than you should have. Sure, maybe you should’ve gotten some kind of reprimand from your parents, but surely not to this degree. The looks on their faces told you that they were deathly serious, and you took a deep breath.

“Could I please, uhm, let you know my decision tomorrow?”

They exchanged a glance before the husband spoke up again, “We will allow it.”

“Thank you.” You were trembling as you bowed to them, barely able to twist the door handle to open the door back up.

Waves of nausea rolled around in your stomach, hot tears burned in your eyes, and a throbbing ache pounded against the confines of your chest as you fully processed this. You either had to lose Chenle or lose the entire future and life that you and your family had worked to give you. If you did choose Brenton over Chenle, you’d have to tell your parents why exactly you had broken up with him, and if you didn’t then you’d have to tell your parents why exactly you’d lost your scholarship. It was a lose-lose scenario for you. Every choice ended in heartbreak and disappointment for both you and the people you loved, and this revelation only made a whimper fall from your lips that you hurried to try to stifle. You couldn’t cry in the middle of the hallways.

Bringing your phone out again, you shakily typed out a message first to Mark, to excuse yourself from practice that night, then one to your mother, asking her to pick you up from the clinic as you were feeling sick, and a third to Chenle, telling him to call you when he saw it.

Your mom seemed slightly exasperated when she came to retrieve you from the clinic, gently reminding you that she had call in late to work to come get you, only intensifying the guilt and shame you already felt. She set you up in your bedroom with ice water and the little leftover ice cream that you had in your freezer, two things that only enhanced your already tumultuous stomach. Nevertheless you thanked her, apologized for making her late, and wishing her a good day at work.

Taking a deep breath, you rolled over to grab a notebook and pen from your backpack. If nothing else, you could make a pros and cons list, something to declutter your mind.

_Pros (of breaking up with Chenle):_

  * Stay at Brenton
  * Stay on the swim team with all my friends
  * Possibly get scholarships to colleges
  * Parents never find out the Zhongs paid for my senior year



_Cons (of breaking up with Chenle):_

  * Break up with Chenle
  * Break up with Chenle
  * Break up with Chenle



Well that didn’t help. You decided to make a different list of pros and cons.

_Pros (of staying with Chenle):_

  * Stay with Chenle
  * Stay with Chenle
  * Stay with Chenle



_Cons (of staying with Chenle):_

  * Go to public school
  * Only see swim friends at the occasional club meet
  * Parents find out the Zhongs paid for my senior year
  * Lesser chance of getting scholarships



Well shit.

A ringing from your phone drew your attention from the paper you were now currently ripping up in frustration. It was exactly who you hoped it would be, and your fingers fumbled for a moment to pick up the call from Chenle.

“Hey, Y/N.” His voice coming through your speakers calmed your momentary rage. “Sorry that I didn’t see your texts earlier, I slept through my alarm. I thought that you’d be in class right now, but you told me to call you anyway, so I thought ‘fuck it,’ and did. What’s up?”

“Hey, LeLe.” You tried to sound as normal as you could. “Where are you right now?”

“In my room, getting ready for school. Why? Where are you?”

“At home.”

His tone immediately turned concerned, “Why? Are you sick?”

With a weak laugh, you said, “No. Uhm, do you think you could come over after school? I need to see you.”

“Is something wrong, Bean Sprout?”

“Uh, no, well, kind of. But it’s fine, I’m fine, okay?”

“I’m coming over now.”

“Ch—” Before you could try to argue with him, he had hung up, leaving a steady buzzing in his wake. Turning the call off from your end, you fell back onto your break with a huff, “He’s been watching too many dramas.”

* * *

There was a knock on your door, and from your internal clock, it was approximately seventy-five years after he had hung up, but according to your stove clock, it was only eleven minutes. Opening your door, you couldn’t even muster up a smile when you saw Chenle standing there, a black car parked behind him on the curbside.

“Hi, Bean.” He greeted you, pressing a short kiss to your cheek that you didn’t try to reciprocate, eyes still fixated on the car.

“Did you drive yourself?”

“Yeah, Seongjoon took my parents out somewhere. Why?”

You shook your head, stepping aside for him to come into your house. He followed you down the hall to your bedroom, concern radiating off of him in waves. When he tried to reach for your hand, you shifted yours into your pocket, hoping that it could’ve seemed like an accident. The short sigh that came from behind you told you otherwise.

Numbly, you sat on your bed, waiting for Chenle to join you. He brushed off the paper scraps you still had on your covers, eyes scanning them momentarily. Apparently, he had garnered no meaning from them, as he still looked at you attentively, “What’s up, Bean Sprout?”

“Chenle, I have a lot to tell you.” You blurted out, wringing your hands together as you spoke.

“Okay, go ahead.” He reached out for your hand, but you withdrew yours, having already made up your mind.

“At the beginning of this school year—uhm, on the second day of school, actually—I was told that my scholarship was at risk of being taken from me. The bursar told me I had another option. Your parents were in there, and they-they offered to pay for the cost of my attendance for this year, if I would be your friend.”

The confusion that quickly became pain across his face made a lump form in your throat. Tears welled up in his eyes that he fervently tried to blink away, to no avail, “It wasn’t real?”

“No, LeLe. The first couple times we talked, yeah, it wasn’t. But then I realized that you were a super funny, super rad, and super cute and I completely forgot about the money. I wasn’t supposed to _like-like_ you… but I did.”

Chenle used his uniform sleeves to wipe at his cheeks, a relieved smile coming to his face, “Thank you for telling me, Y/N.”

You could stop now. Not tell him about the ultimatum you’d gotten earlier. Just let him think that this was it, let him be happy and you be happy, together. But you had to let him know the _whole_ truth. “Wait, I’m not finished. Today they told me, that if I didn’t break up with you, they’d stop paying for me to go to Brenton. I have to tell them my decision tomorrow.”

“So you’re going to break up with me, and forget about me again?” His voice went from angry to small and pained as he spoke, twisting at your heart.

The genuine belief in him that you would do that, that anybody could do it to him, brought your tears back in full force. What you were feeling wasn’t heartbreak, unless you could feel heartbreak in every nerve in your body. It was something deeper and more consuming, angst for him and the lonely life that had led to this moment. And you knew that you couldn’t do it to him. Not because you felt bad for him or felt that he needed you. But because _you’d_ never be able to forgive yourself if you let go of someone this wonderful and this genuine.

“No, no. I could never forget about you, Chenle. Never ever. I’m going to tell them that I’ll go to public school if it means I get to stay with you. If you, uh, still want to be with me.”

Chenle bit his lip, nodding heavily, “Just, give me a couple days, okay? To wrap my head around this, and you know, figure out how I feel about…”

“Me?”

A bittersweet smile came to his lips as he briefly held your trembling hand, a gesture that hurt you more than the tears he had shed when you told his about the false start to your friendship.

“No, I know plain well how I feel about you. It’s… this whole thing. More my parents doing than yours.”

“I understand.” You told him, clenching your teeth together to keep the tears at bay. You weren’t sure if they’d be happy tears or sad tears, but either way you didn’t want to cry in front of him, make it harder for him to leave you in that moment. He had to go and think it all over, and you were going to let him.

He gave your hand a final squeeze, then stood up, almost robotically giving you a small wave goodbye from your bedroom door. Then, he showed himself out of your small house. And maybe your heart.

* * *

As you were switching your folders out of your locker one morning, a hand suddenly ripped the earbud from your ear that had been constantly playing sad music for the past seven days. Before you could give the hidden perpetrator your perpetual scowl, he said, “I do.”

Your heart practically burst at the familiar lilts. Slamming your locker closed, you were finally able to see him, and nearly cried from the relief of just having him talk to you again. Chenle was smiling a smile that reached his eyes, brown hair as unkempt and fluffy as you remembered, and thumbs looped through his backpack straps. He looked… normal, and happy.

“Do… what?” You asked cautiously, not wanting to get your hopes up. It had been nearly a full week since you’d told Chenle the secret you’d been harboring for your whole relationship, and you’d had no contact with him. Or his parents, so you’d figured that he had told them you two had broken up, and then moved on with his life.

“Want to be with you.” He clarified, and without waiting for him to say another word, you threw your arms around his neck. Burying your face in his neck, you let out a deep sigh of relief, wanting to hold him for the rest of your life. Chenle chuckled as he hugged you back, pressing a soft kiss to your temple.

He spoke up again, sounding amused as he stated, “But you’re being too straightforward with this.”

“What?” You questioned, pulling your head back but still keeping close to him, searching those clear brown eyes you hadn’t been able to gaze at in far too long.

“Did you not even think that I could just _tell_ my parents you broke up with me, so you can stay at Brenton? And we can just, you know, date in secret. At least until we graduate. Which is in…” He started counting on his fingers, confident smirk turning down into a frown. “Sixteen weeks.”

You shook your head firmly at that idea, which you had, in fact, thought of before, “I’m not going to ask you to lie to your parents.”

“I was lying to them until that night.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, I already did tell them that, the same day you’d told me about everything.”

“Did you still not know whether you wanted me or not?”

“No, I’d had my mind made up about this pretty much since I’d left your house. I passed by the ice cream shop—our ice cream shop—on my way home. And uhm, it was closed, so I couldn’t get any ice cream. I’m explaining this metaphor really badly, but it felt kind of like us. I didn’t want it, us, to stay closed.”

A giggle bubbled up from your throat, followed by another one, and another one, until you were just a ball of happiness. Nodding, you gratefully grabbed for one of his hands, “I got it, LeLe. I love you.”

“Love you, Bean Sprout.” He grinned, giving you a slightly longer kiss, brimming with more emotion than any of your previous ones, even after your first kiss, or that first night you’d exchanged ‘I love you’s. Maybe because this one held more promise of something more, and of the ending of a time of lies.


End file.
